Bobbie Sue Murphree

The first time Bobbie Sue Murphree made an Italian Cream Cake it fell apart, but she iced it anyway.
“It was still edible,” she said. The recipe was one her mother, the late Janet Faye Parker, made often from The Mississippi Cookbook. This book was compiled by the Home Economics Division of the MS Cooperative Extension Service.
After she and Richard married, her mother gave her a copy of the Mississippi Cookbook,  probably in the early 80s, she said. Over time she has found her favorite recipes in it. Janet, a Bruce Young Homemakers’ Club member for years, also gave her daughters extra pamphlets and Home Economist Christmas recipe booklets.

Bobbie Sue learned to cook from her mother, but also learned from her sisters, Peggy Ramsey and Marsha Cannon. The first thing she ever cooked was scrambled eggs, saying that she made cornbread and set the table a lot when she was younger, and that her sisters did much of the cooking.
The first time she tried to make caramel pie the sugar “never got golden” like sister, Marsha Gail’s, so she just added coconut to it. She has been working on chicken and dumplings, with directions of her mother, and cousin, Vera Ann McCormick. “I’ve got it now,” she said.

Spaghetti is her favorite food. “Everybody in the house likes it except Richard because he doesn’t like noodles.” Their granddaughters, Lonna Kate and Kenzie, ask for her spaghetti. She used to make it for her kids all the time saying that Allyson Ivy loved it.
The Murphrees garden and eat a lot of vegetables and cornbread, and she also makes a lot of vegetable soup.
Bobbie Sue likes to look at recipes shared on Facebook and  buy local cookbooks, but said Bell’s Best was her mother’s favorite. She watches Food Network some, but it’s “whatever Richard wants to see,” usually anything about grilling,, she added.

“Richard Earl cooks more than I do now,” she said. “Fish, deer meat and he fries chicken.”  They cook a lot of deer meat, especially cut up in minute steaks, and they also grill it. He soaks it for three or four days, draining it daily. Sometimes they soak it in worcestershire and wrap with pickles, cream cheese, banana peppers, jalapenos and bacon and grill it.

They like the goulash recipe given to them from Vera Ann McCormick that came from the Parker side of the family, Carl Lynn Parker. “It makes it a lot. It’s a full meal in itself, also the meal in a bundle. The meal in a bundle is better on the grill but ‘don’t do the goulash in the oven, it is not the same as on the grill!’” Both dishes are family favorites. With the meal in a bundle she uses cubed beef, no parsley, and has used golden mushroom or plain cream of mushroom soup.

She made the goulash for Thanksgiving dinner and everybody liked it. She uses Old Plantation sausage seasoning in her dressing, which she learned from her mother, along with celery,  onion–“the works,” she said. And this past Christmas, they made snacks for their family gathering.

Goulash
(cook on the grill)
4 large potatoes, sliced
4 large onions, sliced
4-5 squash, cut in wedges
Large can whole green beans
Bacon–Bryan or Wright’s
Lemon Pepper and Tony’s Creole seasonings
In medium size aluminum pan, put layer of bacon on bottom, then layer of potatoes. Alternate vegetables in layers (turn squash cut side up). After every two layers, add seasoning. Go heavy on the seasoning. After all vegetables have been layered in pan, cover with bacon. Cover pan with aluminum foil. Cook on grill one hour on top rack.

Bobbie Sue’s Spaghetti
2 lbs. ground beef
2 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 onion, more or less
1 bell pepper, more or less
1 tsp. garlic, minced
Cooked vermicelli noodles
Salt and pepper
1 to 2 qts. tomatoes
16 oz. Velveeta cheese
Brown beef, onion and bell pepper in pan with salt and pepper. Add tomatoes, seasoning and cheese. Add cooked noodles and simmer until cheese melts.

Meal-In-A-Bundle
2 lbs. lean chuck
6 carrots
6 medium potatoes
6 Tbsp. chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped parsley
2-10 1/2 oz. cans condensed golden mushroom soup
Heavy duty aluminum foil
Red hot sauce
6 Tbsp. water
Salt and pepper
Cut meat into 1” cubes and carrots into 1/4” slices. Peel and dice potatoes. Chop onions and parsley. Divide chuck, potatoes, onions, carrots, parsley and soup into six equal portions. Place each portion on an 18” square of heavy duty aluminum foil. Add a couple of dashes of hot sauce and a tablespoon of water to each portion. Season with salt and pepper. Bring up corner of foil and twist at top to close bundles. Place bundles on grill 6” above hot grey coals. Cook about one hour. Remove bundles from gill and serve in the foil. Serves 6.

Italian Cream Cake
(The Mississippi Cookbook)
1 stick margarine
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
5 egg yolks
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. soda
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1-3 1/2 oz. can flake coconut
1 cup chopped nuts
5 egg whites, stiffly beaten
Icing (I double the icing recipe)
1-8 oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/2 stick margarine
1 lb. box powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup chopped pecans
Cream margarine and shortening. Add sugar and beat until mixture is smooth. Add egg yolks and beat well. Combine flour and soda and add to creamed mixture alternately with buttermilk.  Stir in vanilla. Add coconut and nuts. Fold in egg whites. Pour batter into three greased and floured 8” cake pans. Bake at 325° for 25 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool. To make a cream cheese icing, beat cream cheese and margarine until smooth. Add sugar and mix well. Add vanilla and beat until smooth. Spread on cake. Sprinkle top with pecans.

Shoney’s Strawberry Pie
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1-10 oz. 7-Up
Red food coloring
1 pint strawberries
1 pie crust
Whipped cream
Mix sugar, cornstarch, 7-Up and dab of food coloring until creamy. Let cool. Combine with strawberries and pour into cooked crust. Add whipped cream on top.

Caramel Pie
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 Tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
4 eggs, separated
4 Tbsp. butter
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1-9” pie shell
2 egg whites
4 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Mix one cup sugar with flour. Add a little milk, then add egg yolks. Add rest of milk and butter. Cook in double boiler until thick. Melt 1/2 cup sugar in heavy black skillet until completely melted and golden brown. Add to other mixture, stirring constantly. Add salt and vanilla. Pour into baked pie shell. Top with meringue made of beaten egg whites to which sugar and vanilla have been beaten in gradually. Brown in a 350° oven until golden brown. (Options: for chocolate pie, add 3 Tbsp. cocoa and don’t brown the half cup of sugar. For coconut pie, add 1/2 cup coconut and don’t brown the half cup of sugar.)